Gearing up for school

I have been busy attending professional development, staff meetings, computer training, and potlucks this week at school. My day has started at 7 a.m. and I force myself to leave at 3 p.m. each day. It has been a little more hectic each day with trying to juggle the auditorium management piece and the teaching piece. My room doesn't look perfect but I think I can pull it together this weekend in a few hours and be ready for the first day. This week has been very scheduled as well. I have started to retrain myself to potty when told, and to eat lunch in 20 minutes, and not have a fridge close to me when I need a drink. I know that I am very tired. I know that structure makes me tired! I realized just how tired I was this morning when my eyes were closed as I flipped open the deodorant cap and realized just inches before it hit my pits that it was my Colgate. Minty fresh pits....can you just imagine?

Tomorrow I am going to spend most of the day at home making sure that we have enough fresh food to survive the weekend. We still are all set on the frozen and canned goods! And I am going to take my kids for their last hurrah for the summer--maybe the zoo or the nature center. Or maybe just bowling. They really aren't picky at all. :)

OH....breaking news before I sign off.....besides hamburgers, imperial chicken, pancakes, and spaghetti, we have added a new meal that everyone will eat! Hold on to your seats....put a life jacket on....we had fish (perch) tonight and EVERYONE ate it. It was not very healthily prepared (go fried food!) but it was a step in the right direction! So now I have 5 meals and 5 weeknights to fill. My life has just become beautiful.

Well, I need to listen to the Democratic candidate now....so I feel a little bit political. And don't forget....keep those eyes open for any stray toothpaste....

Hmmmm....that signature is gone again!

Heidi

Packing Lunches

With school starting next week in Michigan, it is time to start thinking about the dreaded job--packing lunches! Since both Stu and I are usually out of the house as the children leave for the bus, it is very important to us to streamline as many of the morning chores as possible.

On Saturday or Sunday evening, the kids and I spend about 15 minutes making a consolidated effort to pack lunches for the ENTIRE week. I have a bin that stores snacky items and I organize the drawers according to "Kid food groups"-- Salt, sweets, junk, and fruit. I give them certain parameters to work within such as, "this week we need to have 6 items in our lunches--one snack, one sweet, one salt (Junk), a yogurt or cheese, a main food (sandwich, cheese crackers, mini bagel, soup, etc), and a fresh fruit. Since we are packing for the whole week at once I prepare "coupons" that say yogurt, cheese stick, strawberries, grapes, etc. so that refrigerated items are not left out to rot all week!

My husband, who gets the kids ready in the morning because I teach EARLY at high school, simply looks at the "coupons" and fulfills the last bit of the lunch each morning. Towards the end of the year, my 9 and 11 year old were starting to do their own "coupons" which helped us out even more.

I find that this method saves a tremendous amount of time.
Happy School Days everyone!

Mucinex Commercial

Madison's quote of the day after watching a mucinex ad on TV last night:
"I hate it when I get mucous in my "sign ums"--it's such a pain".

Oh to be 9 again!

Maybe I'll join him next summer!

Sometimes I just need to brag a little about members of my family. My girlhood family.

My dad is my rockstar. Actually he is my runningstar but "rockstar" just sounds more hip. For the past 2 weekends he has run in area races. Last weekend he ran in a four mile race in Lapeer and yesterday he ran in the 5K Crim race that had over 13,000 entries for 5 or 6 different races!

In case you aren't familiar with how a "real" race like this works, please let me explain. Everyone gets a "chip" that they attach to their shoe. This electronically records their start and stop time so if they start at the back of the pack, they still are timed accurately. The runners are grouped into age categories as well. This means that my 67 year old dad doesn't compete with a 19 year old (which I have decided is the age to be if you want to be the overall winner--sickening).

The Crim Race is a huge yearly event in Flint. You get to pick up your chip and T shirt the night before the race. That is big! My dad has never liked running in a large crowd because they push him too hard and he could have the potential of over running and not being able to complete the race. He is a retired choir teacher....I'm sure he just sets a steady tempo and goes with it. He started the race about 3 minutes after the big crowd. He then passed 690 people before he crossed the finish line. (That statistic still amazes me because I can see him in my mind counting people as he sped by! ...hmmmm, I hope he didn't yell out the number as he passed....that could get a tad dicey.)

Out of 14 entries in his age category, my dad came in 4th. My dad, who runs or walks at the rec center everyday but Sunday, came in 4th! My dad, who always has time to chat with me on the phone, even if I woke him up from a nap, came in 4th! I am really proud of him. Even if he wears khaki jean shorts and doesn't really look like a runner. Great job, Dad! Oh, and fabulous looking white headband and black leather belt. You really are my rockstar~forever.

Love Always,

Peaches of Plenty!

Guess what I just found?

Here are my pictures of last week's "project".














When all was finished, I ended up with 17 quarts of peaches, 2 peach cobblers, and peaches to eat everyday for a week!

Yummy!

Priorities

Sometimes I wonder why I always run out of time at the end of the day to blog. The last two weeks have been interesting to say the least. I like to write things in my blog that deal with gratitude or happiness. My life hasn't lacked these things lately, but I have started to realize that my time management leaves a bit to be desired. (Wow, this paragraph really doesn't work that well as I re-read it--sorry!)

Things that I have done in the past two weeks:
1. I found my camera.

2. I traveled to Syracuse, NY on an overnight train (!!) and visited Stu's family for 5 days.

3. I took lots of pictures and even brought along my camera cable so that I could upload and post happy pictures.

4. I ran out of time to post and ended up misplacing my cable when I got home from vacation. (UGH!)

4 1/2. I made my 4th (or 5th?) trip to Lapeer in the last 10 weeks. Whenever I get to my parents, I just want to sleep. Maybe it's because I know that my kids are having a better time when I don't get involved.

5. I spent 6 full days at school prepping for the year and catching up on auditorium jobs.

7. I canned 17 quarts of peaches! (I have pictures but I still can't find my cable!)

8. I read almost 3,000 pages of novels this summer.

9. I watched my dad compete in a four mile race. And he finished 3rd in his age bracket. I am very proud of his quest for physical fitness.

Things that I have not done in the past 2 weeks:
1. I haven't started my workout routine. I bought new tennis shoes so I have to be getting close. And they are CUTE. Actually, I worked out once and decided that I was too out of shape to continue.... :)

2. I haven't really cooked very much. We have discovered "Blueberry Muffin Mini Wheats". They are the supreme food of choice around here!

3. I haven't blogged much (and I missed it!)

4. I haven't thoroughly cleaned the house....in 2 weeks. Gross.

I think I need to work on these 4 things at the bottom.

How hard can it really be?

Until next time,

A very clean dishwasher

We have some old friends from Massachusetts visiting today. Nate is extremely excited to see his friend Joe. They were great friends from preschool to first grade when we lived in MA. In an unselfish and loving act of kindness, Nate got up and decided to run the dishwasher to help me have clean dishes for the day. He proceeded to run it after he filled up both soap cups with Palmolive liquid dish soap. About 10 minutes into the cycle, Nate informed Stan that the "dishwasher was leaking tons of bubbles all over the kitchen floor and that it must be broken or something."

Thank you, dear Jesus, for the miracle of vinegar.
And for sons that try to be helpful.

Polar Opposites

Today we went shopping for school supplies. Madison has been looking forward to this day for a few weeks now. She would frequently ask me if "today was the day". I held her off until now but in a moment of weakness, I gave in and we piled into the car and headed to Walmart for the big event. Nathan passed on the trip and told me that he "was already done with his school shopping." I gave him a bit of a bewildered look but didn't further question him and decided to leave him home.

Madison proudly entered our house an hour later with her $17.97 worth of "awesome stuff". She convinced Nathan to watch as she spread it out on her side of the dining room table. It really was quite impressive: 3 bottles of hand sanitizer, a calculator, a package of erasers, protractor, bendable ruler, compass, 8 pencils, 64 crayons, colored pencils, 4 folders, notebook, gluesticks, and a bottle of glue. She then labeled every single item with her initials using a Sharpie marker. She was really excited. She then carefully said to her brother, "Nate, why don't you spread your stuff out on the other side of the table so we can look at it all."

I was in the kitchen at that point in the day and was interrupted by a phone call so I didn't hear his response. A few hours later I walked into the dining room and saw that he had followed through with his sister's request. On his side of the table sat a black 5 subject notebook and 1 pencil.

I couldn't help but giggle at the vast difference in priorities!

A brand new do.

Last week I visited Romeo Camp which holds a camp meeting for 10 days each summer. It has been around a long time. My grandparents owned a cabin in Romeo and would haul the whole family up there for 3 sermons a day (for 10 days in a row!). The camp has somewhat evolved with an up to date projection and sound system and lots of contemporary music but the cabins surrounding the tabernacle and the pews that you sit in are the same. I wished I had my camera to take pictures of this stuff. I have been attending ONE sermon almost every year up there for as many years as I can remember. Thad, my brother in law, preached during Missionary Day this year, and I had the the honor of hearing him. After the service I was sitting down in front goofing around with my nephew. Sally, my sister, rushed to the back to be with their display table. She was quickly greeted by an old hall mate of ours from Asbury College, our Alma Mater. Angie casually asked about me and Sally quickly pointed her in my direction and stated: "You can't miss her...her hair looks just like it did in college." (Which was from 1987-1991). Even though Sally made the comment about my hairstyle quite innocently, it got me thinking. I really have, several times in my life, considered changing my hair. It has been this style since at least 1982. That would put me in Junior High. I had a brief stint of growing it out in college but when I learned how to french braid by myself....I never ever wore it down again. And after about six months of wearing it "up", I figured I might as well go back to short. So, in case you were wondering about other hairstyles that I have considered: let me introduce to you my pictorial ideas!






This makes me look EXACTLY like my mother in college, don't you think?
I do think the glasses are a bit off.

I think this may "frame" my face too much.
I do like the "no double chin" though.

Here's an idea: BLONDE

I think this fro makes my face look a bit too "weighty".

Frizzy Hair and a Spiral perm...wow
Mindy from "Mork and Mindy"??

I feel like I'm in high school again.....maybe 1986 or so?
Three cheers for "Charlie's Angels".


















Using a hair straightener everyday doesn't sound like fun. Plus that turtleneck looks way too hot! Maybe this would have some potential if I had a guitar in the picture and was singing a folk song or something.






As you can see, I don't have a lot of options that are good fits.
So, I think it is safe to say that I may just stay with my current cut for a while longer. Sorry to disappoint you!

Thunderstorms

I wish I had my camera. This morning we had a line of thunderstorms come through around 9 a.m. The sky got incredibly dark and I thought it would be a good idea to get my English Muffin into the toaster in case we lost power. It was then that I realized that the cats had already started their thunderstorm ritual. It goes something like this:

Cassie, the girl cat, runs around the house playing tag with the boy cat Tiger. Cassie then hears the first crack of thunder and scurries to the basement steps. She sits on the steps, hunkered down with her ears twitching. About 3 cracks of thunder later, Tiger joins her on the next step up. There they sit right next to each other looking like they are hunting a mouse. Once things really get started with the thunder and lightening, Cassie retreats to under the basement couch and stays out of sight until about 2 hours after the storm has ended. Tiger continues to sit on the steps and then when the storm has passed, he looks for his sister by meowing around the house until he finds her. It is a ritual that has been going on for 7 years now! They are really cute even though they shed too much and keep us awake at night.

I just looked at the weather radar....it looks as if we are getting more storms later. Maybe I can find a camera by then.

A Summer of Unpredictability

It has been a summer that I could have never predicted.

I am traveling back to Kazoo today after being at my parents for the 3rd time. They aren't sick and there is no crisis. I just like them a lot!

I am so far behind on school prep that I can't even talk about it because I will begin to cry.

I have lost/misplaced my camera. I know my readers like pictures but I will continue to look for this important tool. I took those "Operation Madison" pictures with my old camera. It took me an addition 2 days to find the cord.

I am getting ready to can peaches in a few days. Mrs. Pike taught me how to do this 20 years ago and it is still FUN! Plus they look pretty!

I haven't lost any weight or started a predictable exercise program. I haven't gained any weight either.

So what goals have you not met yet?